Rail-service Access Could Cost $15 Million A Year (see Correction)

It could cost $1.5 million a year to provide connecting bus service to stations along a proposed rail system linking Palm Beach, Dade and Broward counties, some transportation planners say.

That is one conclusion of a preliminary analysis of the proposed tricounty rail system by the planners.

Released late Friday by the Broward County transportation planning office, the draft will be one component of a still-unfinished report by staffs of all three counties and is likely to be revised.

But if anything, according to its author, the bottom-line cost of connecting shuttle service may be even higher than projected. Buses would be needed by up to 97 percent of all the riders on the tricounty train, which would stop at stations far removed from many industrial or office centers.

Many buses would be nearly empty, sitting idle at a cost of up to $35 an hour between trains or with only a few riders to far-flung destinations.

That could derail some of the enthusiasm for the proposal, which is still awaiting congressional approval of a $12.5 million federal low-interest loan.

It is expected that the state would be asked to repay the loan, even though the rail line was first conceived to be financed directly by a federal grant.

Connecting bus service could be financed by a new enhanced service development program yet to be financed by the state Legislature.

Trains would run from Yamato Road in Boca Raton through Broward to the Amtrak station in Hialeah. Service would begin in January 1987, when construction begins to widen Interstate 95, but could continue when the project ends.

The Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization has said a consultant`s report -- commissioned by the state in 1984 to study the proposal`s feasibility -- does not contain sufficient market information, said Bruce Wilson, the director.

The analysis estimates there will be 7,000 trips a day on 16 trains, eight each in the morning and evening. Because of the locations of the stations, 97 percent of the people would need a bus to get from the train to the office.

Existing transit routes, at least in Broward County, could not provide enough service, said Urban Transit Planning Chief Jay Gross.

Added service, public or provided under contract, could cost $2,952 per day.

Compounding the problem, buses would have to be available no matter how few people got off at any given station.

The analysis projects, for example, that only three people would leave the No. 1 train in Boca Raton to go south.

Two people would get off the northbound No. 4 train in Golden Glades, and two would board the No. 2 northbound from Pompano Beach. Six would get on the No. 6 train northbound in Fort Lauderdale. Almost all would need a bus.